At 10 a.m. Tuesday, September 8th, a flag goes up outside St. Thomas City Hall for Crime Stoppers Awareness Month, and anyone who wants to attend the half-hour ceremony is welcome. It is a quiet event for a program most people only think about when a police release ends with a line telling you where to send a tip. This year marks the program’s 38th year, and behind that flag is a small team of volunteers and one simple promise: tell us what you know, and we will never ask who you are.
How it actually works. When you call 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or send a tip through the program’s secure online system, nobody asks for your name. Instead, you get a confidential code number. A coordinator, a civilian member of St. Thomas Police Service, reviews what you sent and passes the details along to the right police unit, but never your identity. Investigators work the tip and report back through the program, not to you directly. If your information leads to an arrest, recovered property, or another result the program counts, the volunteer board can approve a cash reward, paid for entirely through donations and fundraising, never tax dollars. You use your code number to check on it and to collect, without ever giving your name to police. Crime Stoppers is not a replacement for 911. If something is happening right now, that call still goes to police first.
That promise has real legal weight behind it. In a 1997 case, R. v. Leipert, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Crime Stoppers tips are protected by informer privilege, meaning police cannot be forced to reveal a tipster’s identity.
A program that grew with the county. The St. Thomas chapter started in January 1988. In June 2022, it expanded to cover all of Elgin County and became St. Thomas-Elgin Crime Stoppers. Over that time, the chapter’s own count stands at 8,358 calls and web tips, 1,011 arrests, 1,123 cases closed, $187,000 in rewards paid out, $8.7 million in recovered property, and $7.8 million in recovered narcotics.
You do not have to look far to see the program at work. In a release posted this past Saturday, September 5th, St. Thomas Police pointed to Crime Stoppers four separate times: for a downtown job site stripped of more than $4,000 in tools, a stolen laser tool, an overnight robbery in the city’s north end, and a stolen e-bike, each with its own incident number for tipsters to reference.
Volunteers keep it running, and they need more. Crime Stoppers is not run by the police. It is a non-profit charity with its own volunteer board, working alongside St. Thomas Police, Elgin OPP and Aylmer Police, that sets rewards, oversees fundraising, and keeps the whole thing going. In late July, the board posted a call for new directors with backgrounds in leadership, governance, finance, marketing, law, or community service. St. Thomas Police identify Zach Souliere as the chapter’s current chair.
Money for those rewards comes from the community, too. The chapter’s annual golf tournament, held June 12th at Kettle Creek Golf and Country Club in Port Stanley, reportedly raised $8,400 this year. Anyone can also donate directly through CanadaHelps; the chapter says donations and fundraising are what pay for rewards and keep the program running.
St. Thomas Police say they have no separate events planned for the awareness month; by design, this one belongs to the volunteer chapter. If you want to help, a tip is free, a donation is welcome, and the board welcomes new director applications.
Sources: St. Thomas-Elgin Crime Stoppers · St. Thomas Police Service media release, September 5, 2026 · R. v. Leipert, 1997 CanLII 367 (SCC)
By Anthony Zruna · About the LocVox Newsroom
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